{"id":105101,"date":"2023-06-14T17:05:31","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T15:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=105101"},"modified":"2023-06-14T07:10:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T05:10:22","slug":"21-05-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=105101","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We\u2019ll Help Finance an Iranian Nuclear Weapon\u2019: Biden Administration Faces Congressional Grilling on Iran, Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>\u2018We\u2019ll Help Finance an Iranian Nuclear Weapon\u2019: Biden Administration Faces Congressional Grilling on Iran, Saudi Arabia<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Andrew Bernard<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 31 May 2023 (Photo: Screenshot)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf faced a bipartisan grilling Tuesday over Biden administration policy in the Middle East at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee meeting on the administration\u2019s 2024 funding requests for the region.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) accused the Biden administration of undermining its own sanctions against Iran by allowing Iran access to the International Monetary Fund\u2019s special drawing rights mechanism. Special drawing rights are held by central banks as an asset to stabilize a country\u2019s currency, similar to a country holding US dollars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic sanctions, which we\u2019re imposing with one hand, we are actually planning to defeat with our other hand,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cThat is to say, the IMF provides special drawing rights to Iran. So on the one hand, we\u2019re trying to precipitously drive the [value] of the rial down, but in international forums, we just go along and get along\u2026And then we\u2019ll help finance an Iranian nuclear weapon.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaf said she would have to look into the issue further and would come back with a reply about the IMF\u2019s request for US funding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked by Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC) about rumors of a new nuclear deal with Iran, Leaf said that were was \u201ca lot of misinformation and a lot of disinformation churning around in the media ecosystem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaf added that while the Biden administration was still pursuing diplomacy with Iran to put the nuclear issue \u201cback into a box,\u201d the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was \u201cnot actively on the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The sharpest exchange of Tuesday\u2019s hearing came over the administration\u2019s posture towards Saudi Arabia. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) called a readout of Secretary of State Antony Blinken\u2019s recent visit to Saudi Arabia \u201cunacceptable\u201d for its failure to mention Jamal Khashoggi.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and dismembered and he doesn\u2019t warrant mentioned in a summary of the conversation between our Secretary of State and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia?\u201d Connolly asked. \u201cThat would suggest to me \u2014 who represented Mr. Khashoggi, he was my constituent \u2014 and to his family and his fiancee that this has diminished if not entirely escaped as an issue between the Saudi government and the United States government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBy no means, Congressman,\u201d Leaf replied.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaf also downplayed the issue of Saudi Arabia\u2019s reestablishment of relations with Iran, which was facilitated by China, saying that it did not constitute a \u201crapprochement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust to be clear, they didn\u2019t broker or anything,\u201d Leaf said of China\u2019s role in the agreement. \u201cThey hosted a meeting at which the Iranians and the Saudis worked out an arrangement, essentially\u00a0d\u00e9tente<\/span><\/span>, It\u2019s not a \u2018reconciliation.\u2019 It\u2019s not a \u2018rapprochement.\u2019 It\u2019s simply a relaxation of tensions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Connolly said that Blinken\u2019s entire visit to Saudi Arabia was \u201ctroubling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat wasn\u2019t discussed, what hasn\u2019t been emphasized, leads one to believe that we\u2019re moving on on issues that are pretty fundamental,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I would predict that the administration is going to find a lot more resistance in this Congress with respect to the relationship of Saudi Arabia and the continued provision of military arms when our interests are not converging, they are diverging.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018We\u2019ll Help Finance an Iranian Nuclear Weapon\u2019: Biden Administration Faces Congressional Grilling on Iran, Saudi Arabia Andrew Bernard Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 31 May 2023 (Photo: Screenshot) US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf faced a bipartisan grilling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105101"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105116,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105101\/revisions\/105116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}